Supermarket worker pocketed cash at least 165 times

A supermarket employee’s stealing was the tip of the iceberg, its owners allege.

Reading their victim impact statements in the Queenstown District Court on Monday, Four Square Arrowtown owners Brendon and Amanda Colmore-Williams said they had no doubt their former duty manager Craig Livingston had stolen thousands more from them than the $1790 cash for which he had been charged.

Livingston, 53, was sentenced to community work and supervision on a charge of theft as a servant after his application for a discharge without conviction was rejected by Judge Russell Walker.

Ms Colmore-Williams said getting a phone call from Foodstuffs’ security manager telling her about Livingston’s offending had come as shock, but explained discrepancies in the store’s stocktakes in the two years he had worked for them.

The charge only covered the three-month period for which they had CCTV evidence.

The police summary said Livingston spent most of his time working at the store’s cash registers, processing eftpos transactions and handling cash.

The store’s CCTV system captured him pocketing cash from customers or the tills on 165 occasions between July 15 and October 10 last year.

Counsel Ben Alexander said the defendant was experiencing "financial and mental health difficulties" during the period of offending.

He was "extremely remorseful and embarrassed" about his actions, had repaid $1790 and made donations totalling $950 to the Starship Foundation.

The defendant sought a discharge without conviction because of the consequences for his immigration status and future employment prospects.

As a dual British-Australian national, it was possible he would be forced to choose between staying in New Zealand — where he had lived for the past 20 years — or relocating to Australia, and being unable to travel freely between the two countries.

Judge Walker told Livingston the victims had considered him a friend, so the offending had been a "betrayal" of their trust.

"They believe your offending is the tip of a much bigger iceberg over the course of two years."

Although he claimed the offending was driven by "desperation and necessity", he had accepted his mental health and financial issues were no excuse.

He would not be liable to a deportation notice as a result of a conviction, and any impact on his future employability would be an "ordinary consequence" of a conviction.

The judge also noted the defendant had been granted a discharge without conviction for earlier offending.

Judge Walker declined the application for a discharge, and sentenced Livingston to 75 hours’ community work and 12 months’ supervision.